Six on Saturday: 12 May 2018

I was gently admonished (in a nice way) by Granny last week for being too wordy. So this week I’ll try not to be. Or maybe not 😉

1 Papaver Cambricum

Welsh poppies are funny plants. I have deliberately planted some each year for several years. They have always died on me without flowering. Now, all of a sudden, one has popped up of its own accord. It’s about 3 metres away from the closest point where I have planted one before. I’m not going to complain, even if it’s not where I would have planted it.

2 Syringa and Cynara (Lilac and Cardoon if You Prefer)

I often plant two plants together in the same hole so that one grows up through the other, with the lower one hiding bare bits or where they have different seasons of interest. This is another example. The cardoon hides the bottom of the lilac. The lilac flowers now and the cardoon will flower later. Though shoving in a few tree lilies was clearly a step too far. They died.

3 Violas

I planted a row of Viola ‘Freckles’ a couple of years ago. This year I have acquired a mutant purple one which is actually growing stronger than the original. But again, I’m not complaining.

4 Clematis and Pyracantha

Another example of “two in a hole” or, in this case, three. There are actually two different Montanas but the difference is minimal unless you look very closely. The Pyracantha (Orange Glow) is strong-growing and though it may seem swamped by the Clematis, in time the mass of white Pyracantha flowers will replace the fading Clematis ones. If the blackbirds allow, I may then actually get some orange berries.

5 Dahlia Rooted Cuttings

The infamous Gill Heavens won a competition to name a dahlia and she decided on “Peggy’s Pearler” in tribute to her mother. The powers that be couldn’t understand her writing and so the variety was named “Peggy Pearlers”. Oh well. Gill gave me a cutting last year but it didn’t get through the winter in my (perhaps not so-) tender care. I was going to be dishonest but I did own up to acquiring some rooted cuttings from the National Dahlia Collection. These arrived yesterday and are now potted up nicely. Gill will understand when I say Flora helped by watering them in and is now standing guard over them.

6 Plug Plants

I never have enough seed-sowing space (modern house, narrow window sills and all that) so resort to buying a lot of little plug plants every year to satisfy my annual bedding needs. But then I never have enough plug-growing on space so I order garden-ready plugs from Thompson and Morgan. I received an email on Thursday to let me know that the first batch would arrive in about four days. That would have given me enough panic time to organise the greenhouse and growhouses to accommodate some 500 plants. Trouble is that the email was sent after the plants had been delivered and I was already way past the panic stage.

Fellow SoSer N20 Gardener suggested I split them into sixes which would have covered the next 85 weeks here but would have become a bit boring. Another 200 arrived yesterday. Oh, well, it’s warm enough for patio tables to be conscripted into service.

A representative sample of about 400.

Mr P knows that I sort of double-ordered. I sort of forgot I’d ordered 300 or so and ordered them again. Plug plants anyone? And I now have to bite the proverbial bullet and remove the spring bedding which is, as spring bedding often does, refusing to go over properly and so assuage my guilt as it goes to the compost bins.

I know, the Narcissus are too tall but no problem as the windows tilt inwards.

So that’s my six for today. If you pop over to the blog of our gracious leader, Mr Propagator, and have a butchers at his six in the comments appended thereto, of which there are now an unbelievable number, you will find lots of links to the worthy sixes of others.

I will end with just one more plug if I may. My other web site, Garden Blogs Online, has been on the back burner for more months than I care to admit as other pressures have taken their toll. But I’m now up and running again and will be adding more gardening blogs to the list at least every fortnight, sometimes every week, starting this coming Wednesday, until I clear a very large backlog. If you’re a regular sixer and your blog is not already listed, it’ll be in that backlog and will appear soon(ish). If you’re an avid blog reader, you will find more than 200 gardening blogs already listed. You can subscribe there if you want to be kept informed of additions. Plug ends.

Once they are happy, they will self-seed and make a lovely display. For some, they can get a bit invasive whilst others have difficulty, either with growing from seed or in keeping them going once planted out. I’ve always had good results from seed but have not had success out in the garden. Maybe this plant has found the right place without my help. If it does seed itself and I get a clump next year I’ll be a very happy bunny.

I’ll leave it to you to try five (or six) in the same hole. Surprisingly, I’m suddenly finding lots of little spaces. Though shoving a 3-inch-tall something behind a 3-foot-tall something will probably not work well.

Glad to see Flora is doing well, think she might be very busy over the next few weeks. Hopefully Peggy will grow well for you, I am pleased to see that last year’s are shooting even though they had only a limited amount of protection. Tough old bird (not Flora, or Peggy, the dahlia). Clever planting John. Love that clematis!

Flora’s always busy. Well I think I got the delicate bit of Peggy last year. She spent the winter in a greenhouse heated to a minimum temp of 8C (should have been 5C but I discovered the thermostat had stuck). Yet yours cam through, you say, with little protection. I wonder if the compost was wrong; though the osteo is growing well in the same stuff. These cuttings are growing in my trusty coir. They’d better do well or else (I’ll compost them!).

I was mildly rebuked for hostility to welsh poppies last week. It is one of the worst weeds I have, in that it produces lawns of seedlings, even years after seeding, and they grow up in the middle of everything where they are near impossible to remove. Do you want me to save you some seed?

Thanks for the offer Jim but I’ll pass this time. I think I tried growing them for five years but they all keeled over and died without flowering after I planted them out. Then I bought one in flower. It kept flowering for a while but then died. Now this one has popped up from “nowhere”. I’ll let it do its business and whatever the result will live/work with that. They say that these poppies either like where the are and thrive or the don’t, and don’t. You’ve clearly got conditions they like. After all, Cornwall used to be called West Wales.

I am full of admiration for the calmness you are exhibiting in the face of 700 plants to put out. I recommend some good back stretching exercises first! I am currently to be heard muttering when am I ever going to find the time to do those six containers! I like the cardoon and lilac combination very much. One for me to think about!

Co-Codamol is my friend! If I did back stretching exercises I’d be flat on my back all day! Some of the double order stuff is destined for neighbours and some for charity plant sales. I aim to use about 500 of them (actually 750 when everything’s here) but that’ll be it, I think. Six containers, eh? That’s your six sorted for next week if you get on with it.

Originally the lilac was planted under the cardoon as a weak little plant I received as a free gift with a Bakker order (made a change from freebie plastic crap). It’s taken a few years and a lot of pruning to get it to that size. I deliberately keep it open rather than letting it fill up so the cardoon flowers can get up through it. But it works.

Sorry Fred, I did reply to your comment yesterday but I see my reply’s disappeared. I wonder why this happens. Not the first time.

Flora Flamingo was a present from Gill H last year. Given that she’s (a) a watering can and (b) a plastic flamingo both “Flora” and “Flamingo” seemed appropriate. It’s fun to be daft occasionally. Co-planting can deal with all sorts of things, multiple seasons of interest, bare lower stems, even simply wanting to fit something tall and something small in when you’re running out of garden! The key is to match the vigour of the plants you put in together. It’s a variation of the “clematis growing through a tree” idea.

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